Immigration agents are getting electric shock gloves and robots that open doors.
ICE signed a no-bid contract this week for 6,000 pairs of gloves that shock anyone “actively or passively resisting,” which covers a person who goes limp. The agency said today it would buy four-legged Boston Dynamics robots that can open a door on their own. The hardware joins a program whose agents have killed six people since Donald Trump took office and are arresting close to 50,000 people a month.
A century of science fiction villains put robots and pain devices on their own people, and not one of them called the pain de-escalation.
I’ve emailed 8,870 stories over 575 straight nights, free and without ads. The algorithm can’t show them all to you. Add your email address at govbrief.today and I will.
🚨164|🟠112|🟠112|🟠127|🟢48
Trump signs an executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" a week after Canada trade talks collapsed, and floats renaming the Atlantic or Pacific next.
Today’s GovBrief News
Trump says the US struck a deal with unnamed private partners for majority control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, 8 months after capturing Maduro.
Source: CNBC
August 28, 2026
Trump's Truth Social post labels Micronesia and the Marshall Islands "U.S. Territories," 2 sovereign nations the US administered until 1979 and 1990, with no White House explanation.
Source: USA Today
August 28, 2026
Treasury bars Egypt's second-largest bank's UAE branches from the US financial system for aiding Iran at the war's 6-month mark, as Trump hedges on sanctioning Chinese banks.
Source: CBS News
August 28, 2026
California sues to void a $120 million federal buyout that paid Golden State Wind to drop its offshore lease and fund Gulf Coast fossil fuel projects.
Source: Courthouse News Service
August 28, 2026
Interior Department weighs trading part of Yosemite National Park to a Nevada developer wanting a private road into the park, a year after Congress refused, the LA Times reports.
Source: KABC Los Angeles
August 28, 2026
Justice Department appeals a judge's 14-day block on Postal Service rules letting it withhold mail ballots, one day after she found compliance "practically impossible" by November.
Source: Bloomberg
August 28, 2026
Wyoming's Republican governor asks the state attorney general to investigate "aggressive" Justice Department election monitors who tried to inspect tabulators and interview voters during the primary.
Source: WyoFile
August 28, 2026
Defense Secretary Hegseth blocks 4 more Army officers from one-star rank, some tied to the 2 generals he ousted this year, The Hill reports.
Source: The Hill
August 28, 2026
Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to let it enforce its transgender troop ban on those already serving, calling an appeals court's animus finding "gravely erroneous."
Source: SCOTUS blog
August 28, 2026
Trump signs an order creating the US Space Academy, a new military academy to train Space Force, NASA and commercial space workers, naming no location.
Source: NBC News
August 28, 2026
FBI drops its automatic hiring ban on applicants who paid for sex, easing standards to rebuild a workforce depleted by firings, resignations and retirements.
Source: The Independent
August 28, 2026
3 Trump-appointed appeals judges rule Kalshi's sports bets are gambling Nevada can regulate, splitting with the 3rd Circuit as the CFTC sues states to shield prediction markets.
Source: Ars Technica
August 28, 2026
Federal judge refuses to move Trump's hush money convictions to federal court, ruling covering up an affair with Stormy Daniels is not an official presidential act.
Source: Courthouse News Service
August 28, 2026
Federal judge rules unconstitutional the immigration provision Rubio used to deport foreign students for criticizing Israel, in a case won by Stanford's student newspaper.
Source: The New York Times [gift link]
August 28, 2026
Interior cuts over 60 East Potomac Park trees days before Trump's golf course overhaul, after Judge Ana Reyes asked for notice before removing more than 10.
Source: Axios
August 28, 2026
Harris County's district attorney will take ICE's killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo to a grand jury, saying Homeland Security has shared nothing 7 weeks after the shooting.
Source: The Texas Tribune
August 28, 2026
ICE detains far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos at the New Orleans airport for overstaying a 2019 visa, after years of urging mass deportations and ICE checkpoints at supermarkets.
Source: Newsweek
August 28, 2026
ICE moves to spend up to $2 million on Boston Dynamics robot dogs that can open doors, days after buying 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves.
Source: ABC News
August 28, 2026
Newly released 2025 Homeland Security memo lets National Guard troops sent across state lines make immigration arrests as federal officers, none reported so far.
Source: NOTUS
August 28, 2026
National Park Service backs Trump's 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle while finding it will adversely affect 6 national landmarks, including the Capitol and the Pentagon.
Source: NOTUS
August 28, 2026
Trump sets a 2027 pay freeze for most federal workers while giving law enforcement a second straight 3.8% raise, blaming Biden-era inflation that has since risen from 2.8% to 3.3%.
Source: Government Executive
August 28, 2026
Pentagon pauses the firing of 3 Stars and Stripes journalists until September 4 after a judge asked for more time to weigh their First Amendment suit.
Source: Politico
August 28, 2026
Virginia removes Stonewall Jackson and 2 other Confederate statues from Capitol Square, leaving Richmond, the Confederacy's former capital, with none 6 years after the 2020 protests.
Source: WVTR Richmond
August 28, 2026
Chicago launches a $450,000 grant program paying food entrepreneurs and farmers market operators up to $10,000 to sell fresh food in neighborhoods that lack it.
Source: WGN Chicago
August 28, 2026
River outfitters and Lipan Apache members win a court order halting all Homeland Security border barrier construction in Big Bend National Park until at least September 15.
Source: The San Antonio Current
August 28, 2026